Trump: 'I like Bernie' but he may have missed his shot

President Donald Trump welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders into the 2020 fray Tuesday, telling reporters the Vermont independent may have “missed his time” after losing to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“I wish Bernie well. It will be interesting to see how he does,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

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Sanders announced his candidacy Tuesday morning. Trump argued that despite claiming a democratic socialist ideology, which the GOP has vilified, Sanders would agree with him on trade.

Like Trump, the Vermont senator espouses a protectionist trade platform. And in 2016, he was seen as pushing Clinton leftward on trade, which resulted in Clinton withdrawing her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

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But Trump posited Tuesday that Sanders wouldn’t have been able to translate his protectionism into policy like Trump has, presumably referring to his trade war with China and renegotiation of NAFTA.

“Personally, I think he missed his time,” Trump told reporters. “But I like Bernie because he is one person that you know on trade, he sort of would agree on trade. I'm being very tough on trade. He was tough on trade. The problem is, he doesn't know what to do about it.”

“We're doing something very spectacular on trade,” he added.

The White House has sought to tie Sanders’ progressive ideology to the rest of the Democrats running for president in 2020, painting proposals championed by Sanders — like "Medicare for All" and raising taxes on the wealthy — that have become more mainstream as radical and impractical, though they have somewhat divided 2020 Democrats.

Trump also returned to a familiar refrain against Clinton, claiming that Sanders was unfairly treated by the Democratic Party and Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 primary.

“I think what happened to Bernie maybe was not so nice. I think he was taken advantage of. He ran great four years ago,” he said. “And he was not treated with respect by Clinton, and that was too bad.”

The president — and Sanders — has complained that the Democratic National Committee unfairly had its thumb on the scales in Clinton’s favor, a claim that was borne out with the release of damaging DNC emails in 2016. Trump revived the accusations Tuesday.

“I thought what happened to Bernie Sanders four years ago was quite sad as it pertains to our country,” he said.

Sanders has not had such kind words for the president.

“I think it is absolutely imperative that Donald Trump be defeated because I think it is unacceptable and un-American, to be frank with you, that we have a president who is a pathological liar, and it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it's true,” Sanders said Tuesday morning after announcing his candidacy. “We have a president who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a xenophobe, who is doing what no president in our lifetimes have come close to doing, and that's trying to divide us up.”